Hired Stalker
by The 8th Stone
Summary: Sakura Haruno has a secret: she is a hired stalker, the best there is in Konoha High. Never before has she been caught, never has she failed a mission. But now came the biggest challenge yet: get the photo of Sasuke Uchiha, newest fangirl fancy. Sasu/Saku
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own **_**Naruto**_**.**

**A/N: **_Hired Stalker _was created in my brain during the Oscars. Watching all those movie stars made me wonder about their life, what they were thinking about, were they really happy, were they acting their joy in those speeches, what their life was like, etc. And out came HS.

This story is AU, and I'm posting this chapter out... for an experiment, you can say :). But don't worry, all the _Sasuke Not Uchiha_ fans out there. SNU is still my priority right now. That's why this chapter is so short.

(P.S. I love to experiment with different formatting.)

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**Chapter One**

* * *

The figure, dressed in all black, flitted out of the subway entrance. Her footsteps made not a noise against the concrete pavement, movements silent as the night around.

With speed and grace, the girl ran through the shady parking lots and across roads, under bridges and above trees. Still, silent as a stalking hawk, she traveled from the shady ends of alleyways and into the suburbs.

It was the houses of the rich and fancy, with every single building the same three-story-and-front-lawn like the others. For a second she stood there, paused in a confused sort of manner, before scurrying away once more.

Three-five-six-seven... three-five-six-nine... three-five-seven-one... There. The girl made it to the front of a paved down driveway, unmarred by cracks or weeds.

She took a moment to snort at the rich's over-expenses (seriously, were those _retractable_ sprinklers she saw?) before trudging up the house.

The doorbell rang in two notes, _ding-dong_, and then there came a loud "I've got it!", followed by the trumping of stairs. Immediately, the girl pressed her back against the wall—but relaxed when she saw the door open to reveal her client's face.

A sour-faced teenage girl stood at the doorframe, though her eyes instantly brightened when she saw who it was.

"You have it?" she asked excitedly.

The taller girl nodded, reaching from her pocket to retrieve a photo (she'd printed it out at a local library from her precious camera), before it was literally snatched away.

The fangirl gave a dramatic gasp. "This—this is...! It's a picture of Tadeski Tensha, from Leaf's basketball team! Like, SHIRTLESS! OMG OMG OMG I can't believe this!" She squealed. "Oh god, Tade looks even hotter like this! This is, like, a totally dream come-true!"

Behind the mask, Sakura Haruno gave a wry smile. She didn't tell the other girl that, with the picture only covering the top half of the boy's body, the camera skillfully eluded Tadeski's lower body... where a pair of Hello Kitty PJ's covered his legs. What a way it would be to ruin the girl's fantasies.

But alas, this was a client, a customer—more importantly, a _paying_ customer. If she took the opportunity and made her mad, the only thing it would ultimately ruin was Sakura's own "business".

She needed the money.

A stack of cash thrown her way, though the fawning over the picture never stopped. Sakura caught it with ease, and, before she could listen to another word about how handsome an gorgeous and hot (weren't those the same thing...?) dear Tade was. She was gone in moments.

Sakura never stopped running until she was well away from that neighborhood. Only when she arrived at the familiar dull gold thirty year-old Camry did she pause.

A window rolled down. "How was business, Forehead?" Ino Yamanaka greeted.

Too out of breath to argue with her best friend, Sakura merely opened a car door, and then proceeded crashing on that old, cracked seat.

She tore off her face mask. Sweet, cold air greeted her sweaty face. If it wasn't for staying anonymous, she would've ditched that uncomfortable mask long ago.

"Fine, I guess." Then she leaned forward, her forehead hitting the back of a seat. "...Ow."

Ino finished applying her makeup and raised an eyebrow in the mirror. "Why so emo, Billboard-Brow?"

She banged her head against the seat and moaned pitifully once more. "Nothing, Pig."

The blonde continued cheerfully, starting the engine, "I have some news you might want to hear. Interesting news. Wanna know?"

"You're going to tell me anyway, why bother—Whoa. Ouch," Sakura said, rubbing her head. She glared at Ino. "Remind me how you got your license again."

Her friend smirked. "I didn't. Anyway, as fascinating as the subject of _me_ is, there's something more important that I need to tell you."

Now Sakura was interested. "Really?"

"Yeah... Remember Naruto Uzumaki?"

It began to rain, droplets falling rapidly against the windowpanes as streetlights flashed from outside.

Sakura paused for a second, hand on her chin with a thoughtful look. "Uh-huh. The one who left Konoha a few months ago to go after his psycho of a best friend, whats-his-name? Socks? Sauce? Sake?"

The flash of pain across Ino's face went unnoticed by the girl.

"Sasuke. Sasuke Uchiha."

When her friend didn't say anything else, Sakura said, "What about Uzumaki?"

"Huh?"

"Are you forgetting things at your old age, Pig?" she teased. "You know. You said something about Naruto Uzumaki."

"Oh, right... Naruto..." Ino shook herself a little, though her knuckles were noticeably whiter from her grip around the wheel. "He's coming back."

Sakura blinked. "To Konoha?"

"Mm-hm." There was Ino's usual smug grin whenever she got a piece of gossip Sakura didn't know about. "Tomorrow. I heard it from Hinata earlier."

"But—I thought he made it his life-long mission to save his 'brother' from the grip of darkness or something...? Wait," she sat bolt right from her seat, "you don't mean—?"

"I _do_ mean." Ino smirked. "Apparently, Naruto has managed to finish his life-long mission in two months."

Sakura sat back, looking out the window. Her breath formed fog on the glass.

"Okay... So the most legendary students ever is coming back to our high school." She crossed her arms, knowing Ino could see her raise brow. "What does that have to do with anything, other than good gossip?"

The blonde rolled her eyes. "For a straight-A student, you really are slow, aren't you? Think, Sakura! Use that wide forehead of yours! The two most famous, most popular (yes, you'd be surprised at still how popular Mr. Socks is, even after that attempted arson he was 'supposedly' involved with), most _gorgeous_ guys—"

Her mind made a connection between Ino's words and her earlier client.

Ino saw her look of realization and grinned. "Yes, Sakura. _Fangirls_."

* * *

**A/N:** The setting of this story isn't in Japan or the United States or anywhere like that. And, if you assume that this story was translated from whatever language it came from (including the currency and all that), it can explain the lack of "-san"s or "-kun"s and other suffixes. OC names would come in all sorts of language, not limiting to Japanese, and the character's name in dialogue will be written the same as non-dialogues: first name then last name, instead of the opposite way around. So, uh, if you happen to be fluent in Japanese and got a weird definition for a name, well, I most likely made it up. :) Sorry.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

**A/N:** I just found a fic with an idea rather similar to _Hired Stalker_. It's called _President of My Fan Club_ by **MoodyAura**. I'm only reading the first few chapters, so I don't know how it ends, but it's pretty good. :)

* * *

**Chapter Two**

* * *

Ino was depressed. She needed to bang her head against some wall. Just what the hell was she thinking?

Sakura was happy, chipper as usual when not in her stalker-form. She talked on and on about that "lazy, perverted Kakashi! Seriously, how did he get a teaching license at all?" and the possibilities of her actually getting a Sasuke-request, "I dunno, Ino. Is he really _that_ good-looking that all the fangirls will pursue him? Not that I don't like the idea. More requests is more business, after all...

"Pig? You 'kay? Worrying will give you early wrinkles," Sakura teased.

"Psh. Like that will ever happen." Ino waved the comment away dismissively. "Just... Careful, alright? This is not a paid assignment, and what you're doing is basically a federal offense."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "When is it not? Plus," she said, adjusting the straps of her pack, "I'll feel guilty. Lee's been doing so much for me. I need to repay him a favor."

"Yeah, by stealing from _Neji Hyuuga_, the boy who can see _everything_." Ino crossed her arms. Lee helping Sakura was nothing unusual. Even before the... Incident, as Ino would like to call it, Lee had a crush on Sakura. By doing so much for Sakura, Lee was trying to mend the mistake that wasn't really his. "They're best friends. I don't get why Lee can't just ask him for his," she shivered, "hair tie."

"Guys can't ask guys that." Sakura grinned. "It'll be 'unmanly.' 'Sides, it's a late birthday present for Tenten. You know how she's always going on about blackmailing Neji."

Both girls got a good laugh at that one. They knew the real reason Tenten wanted Neji's hair tie was probably because she wanted to wear it herself.

"'Bye, then, Pig." Sakura smiled and dashed away to first period.

"'Bye..."

Ino watched as Sakura's pink hair swept away in the tide of Konoha students. Superstitiously, she took out the small piece of paper with the messily scrawled handwriting. It was addressed to "Cherry," Sakura's business name. And the target of the request was none other than the newly arrived Sasuke Uchiha.

Sakura would never take Ino's money, even if she had to beg and grovel at the streets for a living. To Sakura herself, she had never had a parent in living memory. Never a relative. As far as she could remember, she had always been on her own, it was just the recent bills that needed her new job. And, chances were, she would end her identity as a hired stalker once money was no longer such a pressing issue. Then, if Sakura was even luckier, she would be able to get a job as a photographer, seeing as going into the area of medical expertise was never an option to begin with. But it was such a crude plan. And Sakura, stubborn as she was, would not accept Ino's help.

All the talk about Sasuke had made Ino even more miserable. On one hand, she didn't regret her decision of telling Sakura about Sasuke (she needed the prepping, just in case), neither did she think Sakura would crush on the boy again (they were very anti-fangirl now, working with them all the time). It was just that Ino couldn't bear it if Sakura managed to find out—about what really happened at—as she would like to call it—the Incident. Sakura was a tough girl, but for her to relive—... No, Ino told herself sternly. She was worrying too much. Things would work out, as they always did... except in those regards of a Mr. Uchiha.

Ino sighed._ Wonder how Naruto would react..._

Speaking of which, she had a phone call to make.

* * *

Sakura tried to walk inconspicuously into the classroom of 7B, Business. School was probably the hardest challenge in the job—her bright pink hair never failed to attract gazes of the general population, like a beacon in a storm. It marked her out.

There was nothing to worry about this time around, though. The classroom was incredibly noisy and boisterous when she arrived, everyone crowding around two guys Sakura didn't recognize (she thought one of them was a blond). The only people who'd noticed her were the few loners that kept to themselves. Her target, Neji Hyuuga, was nowhere to be seen.

Which was well. Neji knew of her business, and it would, of course, be too suspicious to just go up to the boy and ask for a hair tie (like she'd done with Peterson and the Very-Much-Desired Purple Pencil).

But it would also mean that she could not retrieve the white hair tie, since Neji wasn't there. Sakura had no idea where he was, whether at home or at school. So she decided to look around. It wouldn't hurt.

She passed the central traffic crowd, two wrestling boys behind an upturned desk, four chairs, and several pencils and erasers that littered the ground. That staff meeting must've taken forever.

Hopefully Tsunade wouldn't mind that she was late to class. She was the only student in Pre-Med anyway (though she couldn't see the point of taking that class, Sakura loved it, even though her teacher could be a bit more lenient at times...).

Her eyes located a group of girls that sat in a corner, chatting. They were a couple of the nerdier groups, less social and less bothered by the classroom. In the group Sakura located Lily Han, a junior who sat behind Neji Hyuuga in the class. And how did she know this? ...Well, she _was_ a stalker, after all.

But, more importantly, there was a book bag in Neji's seat.

Yes! This must be her day! It was going to be easy now, taking that hair tie. No one was looking. She would do it quickly...

"...but I still really want to go to that convention..." one of the girls pouted. "It's my mom. She won't let me go..."

Good. They didn't notice. Sakura's hand fumbled for the zipper.

"...ask her, then. She'll give in sooner. Don't see why you can't..."

Hm... Since when did Neji become so... unorganized with his stuff? Huh. Maybe he got a new backpack or something... Darn it. Where was that girly piece of cloth he always carried?

"...glad I'm not an anime fan. _My_ mother thinks that manga rots your brain. She'll never—Huh? Wha—? Oh, you're right. I'm sitting on the wrong seat. Haha. That would've been embarrassing." Lily and her friends rose from their seats and moved away. Sakura, too busy with the bag, didn't notice.

* * *

Ino's foot tapped loudly as Asuma continued lecturing about sine and cosine and tangent and other whatnots. A few of her classmates shot her looks of irritation, but Ino ignored them. Trigonometry had never been the thing for her.

Tenten hadn't picked up the phone, so Ino texted her instead. But the girl wasn't responding, and Ino wanted to know why.

Her phone shook. Ino scowled. About time.

The text went like this:

**wa do u mean? neji isn't here today. judo tournament with hina.**

Ino moved her fingers across buttons while pretending to pay attention.

**sak is supposed to get his hair tie 4 u in his class. late b-day present from lee.**

She hit the "send" button. And when she read the next text message, Ino almost had a heart attack.

**ino... sasuke is in business. naruto showed us his schedule yesterday.**

She dropped her phone. And ran out the classroom.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

**A/N:** This chapter was a gigantic pain in the rear. Seriously.

And I apologize in advance. This was definitely not up to my usual standards (if any existed :P). But, seriously, I need to get this out before writer's block settles in fully. _Hired Stalker_ is definitely not one of my best stories...

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**Chapter Three**

* * *

Naruto Uzumaki was a legend. Everyone in Konoha High—from the nerdiest of nerds to the snobbiest of snobs—knew about him. Like how Naruto Uzumaki drove out the mad exchange student from Suna High, Gaara (though they were on good terms after the incident), and how he'd saved the school from the evil superintendent, Pein (that really was the guy's name, no kidding). He was hailed by many as "Konoha's Own Hero." His close group, made up seven of his own grade and three others a grade above, was called the "Konoha 11."

Rumors were not uniform on what, exactly, happened after "Pein's Invasion," as dubbed by many students who'd experienced the incident. Hokage Danzo, the self-appointed principal of Konoha, was supposed to attend a meeting in Tetsu, the Iron Section, with other principals of the Five Great Academies to discuss the gradual corruption of board members. Some rumors said that Naruto had left Konoha with the other Konoha 11 members as model students to Tetsu, while others seemed to be convinced that Naruto had left to beg the Raikage for forgiveness. Of what, they couldn't answer, but firm believers of this side of the story theorized that Naruto was asking the Raikage to forgive his wayward best friend, Sasuke Uchiha, who seemed to have offended the man in some way.

No one was certain of what happened during the five Kage's meeting. All they knew was that Danzo was replaced by the hospital-released Tsunade (who everyone loved much more than the other nameless bastard), the Konoha 11 separated by various means, and the school (as well as Suna, Kumo, Iwa, and Kiri) was on a demolition notice by the Akatsuki Corps.

Sakura Haruno was hospitalized. Naruto Uzumaki disappeared overnight. Konoha was in a panic.

And then, of course, the Akatsuki fell by the hands of one person: Naruto. He dug up every dirty deed he could find and literally announced it in front of the whole country, via live television. Stock prices steamrollered downwards. The company bankrupted after the notorious CEO Madara's suicide, having lost everything. The demolition notice became invalid, and Konoha survived.

Everyone was eager for Naruto's return. Everyone wanted to witness Konoha's Hero. But Naruto didn't. He'd made it his lifetime goal to rescue his friend from the darkness. Now that the Akatsuki fell, it was the best time to make his best friend see the truth behind it all . . .

Someone turned the lights off. This annoyed Sakura very much. It was almost as if some moron was trying to get her caught. How could she look for that damn hair tie if some prankster decided to shut the lights?

The room fell silent.

And it was then Sakura realized that no one switched the lights off at all, and the darkness she was saw actually someone's sha—

"What do you think you are doing, Sakura?"

She lifted her head and met dark, dark eyes.

"_It is not in the human nature to forgive, but to forget . . ."_

Ino burst through the door, leaning against the doorframe, heaving with exhaustion.

"Sa—Sa—Sakura."

Said girl looked at her best friend in both surprise and relief. But the dark-haired boy didn't turn, didn't acknowledge Ino in any way. Rather, he stood his ground, glare fixed still upon Sakura.

Out of nowhere, Ino laughed, naturally, carefree. Sakura looked at her best friend, startled. Was she going mad?

"Oh, Forehead, you're such an idiot sometimes." The smile she flashed at the bewildered students instantly won them over, erasing their confusion. This was Ino Yamanaka, one of the Konoha 11, who sold flowers after school for charity and helped in school peer counseling. What could possibly be wrong? Ino laughed again, a mirthful and bubbling sound. "I knew you were excited about meeting _the_ Sasuke Uchiha, but I didn't know you were in such a hurry."

At this, all of the uncomfortable tenseness in the classroom dissolved. Girls glared at Sakura before hurrying back to their original groups, while boys went back talking about sports. Just another fangirl. Nothing new.

One blond boy appeared from the wave of students. His eyes zeroed on Sakura, and for a moment she swore the boy's eyes widened . . . in recognition and was about to call her name, but thought better of it.

Instead, he turned to the other boy, the one Ino said was Sasuke. "Ah, teme," he said nonchalantly, but Sakura could bet that no one missed the tremble in his voice. "Looks like you've got another fangirl coming. What is it now, fifty-six already?"

Teme . . .

That nickname hit Sakura with a weird sense of déjà vu. It was as if . . . a door she never knew existed opened in her mind. Unconsciously, and for no apparent reason at all, Sakura reached out her hand . . .

Sasuke's eyes, which had been focusing wearily on the blond, snapped back to Sakura.

Was . . . was that _red_ in his eyes?

"Who—"

Ino caught Sakura's hand. "Oh, hi, Sasuke—I mean, nice to meet you and all that. But we have to go. So, toodles!"

And, like that, she was dragged out of class 7B.


End file.
